contact-form-setup.md

Contact Form Setup

The contact form uses a simple Express server to send emails via Nodemailer.

Setup Instructions

1. Install dependencies:

   npm install

2. Configure email settings: Create a .env file in the root directory with:

   EMAIL_USER=your-email@gmail.com
   EMAIL_PASS=your-app-password
   PORT=3001
   

3. For Gmail users:

   • Enable 2-factor authentication
   • Generate an "App Password" (not your regular password)
   • Use the app password in EMAIL_PASS

4. Start the development server:

   npm run dev

   This will start both the frontend (Vite) and backend (Express) servers.

How it works

• Frontend sends form data to http://localhost:3001/api/contact (dev) or /api/contact (prod)
• Backend validates the data and sends an email to contact@aswincloud.com
• Form shows success/error messages based on the response

Production Deployment

For production, you'll need to:

1. Deploy the Express server (server.js) to your hosting platform
2. Set up environment variables on your hosting platform
3. Update the frontend API URL to point to your deployed server